A report on the battle of Fère-Champenoise, March 1814 …

Monseigneur,

General of Division Count Pacthod not having deemed it appropriate to furnish Your Excellency with a report on the affair of Fère-Champenoise of the past 25th of March, an affair in which his division was captured and made prisoner of war, I cannot refrain from doing so myself, in order to render to the troops under my command and to their leaders the resounding justice which is due to them. In no military circumstance has misfortune ever been honoured by great strength and intrepidity.

Pacthod’s Division, about 2,400 men strong, including artillery, joined at Sézanne on 23 March, during the night, with General Amey, whose division consisted of 800 men and who had assembled a convoy of 200,000 rations of bread, along with 80 wagons of war munition. On the morning of the 24th, these two combined divisions set out on the march towards Bergère, where they intended to join, first, the army corps of Misters the Marshals of Treviso and Ragusa [Mortier and Marmont], and subsequently the Grande Armée. It does not concern me to elaborate here on the very considerable motives which determined to follow the road of Bergère to proceed to Vatry, instead of following the shortest course, I must limit myself to discussing the matter.

The troops halted at half past ten on the road of Bergère to Vatry, two leagues from the latter point. At a quarter to eleven, I sighted several heads of columns in the direction of Châlons, heading towards us, perpendicular to the road where we were resting. I formed up my brigade at once, 1,200 men strong and composed of a battalion of the 54th Line Regiment, the 1st Regiment of the National Guard of la Sarthe and the 3rd Provisional Regiment of National Guards, composed of a Loir-et-Cher battalion and a battalion of Indre-et-Loire. At the same time I dispatched [an officer] to warn the general of division, who was half a league ahead on the road, of the enemy’s approach; this was the Army of Silesia.

At eleven o’clock, their cavalry executed three consecutive charges on our squares which were repulsed with the greatest intrepidity. However, all the enemy’s masses were gaining ground and the cavalry surrounded us. In this state of affairs, the general ordered the retreat in the direction of Fère-Champenoise. At a quarter past eleven, the movement commenced in the middle of an immense plain without woods, without mountains, without any obstacle on the ground which could provide any advantage to the infantry against the cavalry and prevent the latter from advancing, which is always swift if compared to the march of the infantry.

At noon, the artillery was firing canister shot at us in the rear and on both flanks. At one o’clock, two guns gained our front. They were supported by an innumerable quantity of cavalry; it was in this situation that, on all sides struck by the enemy’s canister fire; from behind, on our flanks and at the front by their cannonballs, I can state that less than three thousand men continued their retreat on Fère-Champenoise for four leagues, charged upon every quarter of an hour without ever being broken up, always forced to make their presence felt in the midst of the cavalry, and then charge the guns which were moving ahead.

At five o’clock, at half a league from Fère-Champenoise, we perceived the heights, which dominate this city, covered with forces of cavalry, infantry and artillery. At first, we had given ourselves up to the hope that these troops could represent the corps of Misters (the) Marshals the Dukes of Ragusa and Treviso, and we rejoiced to have accomplished a junction which turned out to be quite glorious. The illusion was short-lived. The forces on the heights of Fère-Champenoise multiplied so rapidly that there was no longer any doubt that they belonged to the enemy. Moreover, the discharge of a formidable artillery, thundering on the ranks, also convinced us of the presence of a new (type of) enemy. The brigade under my orders, which lent its left flank to this battery, was not shaken, and as if it had acquired a new degree of energy by the looming danger, it only marched more proudly and more closely towards the new direction given to it by the general of the division, in order to gain ground towards the right and to escape, if it was possible, the activity of the troops which crowned the heights of Fère-Champenoise. They were the Russian, Austrian and Prussian armies commanded by their sovereigns in person. The march was continued under the murderous fire of this artillery until a quarter past six. At this hour, my brigade, worn out with fatigue, after having left more than 700 men on the battlefield, after having used up all the cartridges which it had consumed in repelling more than twenty cavalry charges with its fire (at a distance of 50 toises), and finally after seven hours of fighting which will be always remembered, succumbed to the might of the three combined armies.

There is no one, Sir Count, in my brigade who has not done beyond what is prescribed as the most distinguished form of honour. The battalion of the 54th Regiment and its commanders have upheld the reputation which so rightly belongs to the veteran forces of the Armies of Spain. However, Monsieur le comte, I cannot find an appropriate expression to praise the National Guard under my command; the epithet of brave and heroic, which everyone values, is worthless without strength and without energy, to describe their conduct fairly and accurately. It is the most impossible value, at the same time as it is the most energetically active, depending on whether one must face death without trying to avoid it, or preserve one’s life to prove that one knows how to defend it.

You are righteous and, if it was not necessary to limit myself, I would have to quote without exception all the officers of my five battalions. There is not a single one [of them] who does not deserve the attention of the sovereign as well as his favours, but above all the others, I must mention Mr. Major Bergeron to your Excellency, commander of the Regiment of the National Guard of la Sarthe, and Mr. Major Durivoire, commander of the 3rd Provisional Regiment made up of a battalion of Indre-et-Loire. It is impossible to combine a perfect knowledge of war with more experience and a cooler form of bravery, while at the same time inspiring the soldiers.

I would be subjecting their sensibilities to too heavy a test, Sir, not to grant them an unequivocal token of satisfaction. I ask Your Excellency to offer this to them, and I beg you, Sir, to accept the homage of my respect.

Paris, 29 August 1814.

The General of Brigade,

Signed : Baron DELORT.

Source : Article published in Le Carnet de la Sabretache of 1901.